Dutch tradition, having holy days twice; Christmas, Easter and Pentecost all result in two days off. In recent years pressure is building to transfer these second days to other religions. For now, 2nd Easter day is generally considered to be the day the Dutch go shopping for furniture.
On this day Jesus’ resurrection is celebrated, first of all by jubilant ringing of all church bells, Maastricht’s largest bell Grameer to be heard all over town. Apart from the festive Mass, there is happy stuff with chocolate bunnies and searching for hidden eggs.
On this day Christianity remembers Jesus’ suffering and death, with solemn readings of the gospel in churches. Traditionally, all public life would pause around 15 hrs, assumed to be the time of his death, but this is no longer the case.
The Thursday before Easter is marked in Christianity as the day Jesus shared a last meal with his disciples. In doing so, he started the celebration of the Eucharist, sharing bread and wine to remember him, still part of every mass today. Represented a thousand times in art history, most people nowadays no longer mark this day.
For 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆 it is customary to make a ‘tree’ – also a tradition with pagan roots – which each element now a symbol of the christian faith. These are brought to the old and infirm, but ofcourse you can enjoy the special bread rooster and the chocolate eggs at home!
Lucy Willems made a nice promo video for Meet Maastricht:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4VFDUTcBRo
Spring has sprung!
So let’s take a walk, or a bike ride, and explore – you pick a date, you pick the topics and off we go!
For all our walks and rides see https://www.meetmaastricht.eu/activities/
Maastricht Calendar Since café’s are still in their Carnaval garb the publicans will have a day of celebrating themselves, after the hard slog of Carnaval, before all the decorations are taken down, until next year…